diff --git a/.packit.yaml b/.packit.yaml
index 66c389f24..74556e5c6 100644
--- a/.packit.yaml
+++ b/.packit.yaml
@@ -23,6 +23,15 @@ jobs:
     targets:
     - fedora-all
   trigger: pull_request
+  actions:
+    post-upstream-clone:
+      # we need to set email and username for the merge commit
+      - 'git config user.email "blivet-ci@example.com"'
+      - 'git config user.name "Blivet CI"'
+      # merge the release branch to get correct version in spec
+      - 'git merge --ff origin/3.9-release'
+      # bump release to 99 to always be ahead of Fedora builds
+      # - 'bash -c "sed -i -r \"s/Release:(\s*)\S+/Release: 99%{?dist}/\" python-blivet.spec"'
 
 - job: copr_build
   trigger: commit
@@ -30,6 +39,15 @@ jobs:
   project: blivet-daily
   branch: 3.9-devel
   preserve_project: true
+  actions:
+    post-upstream-clone:
+      # we need to set email and username for the merge commit
+      - 'git config user.email "blivet-ci@example.com"'
+      - 'git config user.name "Blivet CI"'
+      # merge the release branch to get correct version in spec
+      - 'git merge --ff origin/3.9-release'
+      # bump release to 99 to always be ahead of Fedora builds
+      - 'bash -c "sed -i -r \"s/Release:(\s*)\S+/Release: 99%{?dist}/\" python-blivet.spec"'
 
 srpm_build_deps:
  - git
diff --git a/python-blivet.spec b/python-blivet.spec
index b0fe3230f..2486e3226 100644
--- a/python-blivet.spec
+++ b/python-blivet.spec
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ Version: 2.0.2
 
 #%%global prerelease .b1
 # prerelease, if defined, should be something like .a1, .b1, .b2.dev1, or .c2
-Release: 2%{?prerelease}%{?dist}
+Release: 1%{?prerelease}%{?dist}
 Epoch: 1
 License: LGPL-2.1-or-later
 %global realname blivet